DIY Herringbone Headboard

Today’s DIY herringbone headboard project definitely ranks as one of my very favorite projects ever. You saw a peek of it in this post where I used it as the backdrop for some photos of Hattie. We started it back in October (which I was surprised to learn when I was looking back through the photos – time really does fly), and finished it just before Hattie was born.

Isn’t it pretty? I really love it. A lot. It’s exactly what I had pictured in my head.

Joel drew up the plans for the herringbone pattern, making sure it would all be symmetrical, and we worked together to put the headboard together. I even did the nail-gunning, which is out of my normal comfort zone. I usually leave the power tools (other than the sander) to Joel, but with him cutting boards while I nailed them in place, it went together pretty quickly. As you can see, we attached the pattern to a plywood backing that Joel attached the legs onto.

Joel trimmed the edges flat and added a border around the headboard, and then we brought it inside for a few months. The boards were damp when we bought them, and we wanted to make sure the cedar was really dry before it was stained and painted.

Once I could convince Joel to haul it back out to the garage for me, I stained the headboard dark walnut so that when it was distressed the dark would show through.

Next I covered the stain with white paint. I kind of liked the look after one coat, but decided to keep going. It took about 6 coats in all with our paint gun, I think, to get the coverage I wanted.

To give it an aged look, we distressed it by hand with sandpaper, bringing the dark stain back through the white.

The headboard was finished off with several coats of satin Polyacrylic to protect it.

I had been looking for some bedside tables for quite some time, and was excited to find these little gems at Ikea one day recently. The lamps are also from Ikea, which I bought a couple of years ago.

The bedspread is from Target, which I bought mostly because it was on clearance for $30, regular $100. I thought it would just be an extra for when we needed one, and didn’t realize how much I would actually love it until I put it on my bed! Now it’s my favorite.

I couldn’t have been happier when we finally got the headboard back into our bedroom, and even happier that we got it done before Hattie came along.

Update: My husband drew up the plans for the headboard in SketchUp, and here is a screenshot that shows measurements for placing the herringbone pattern correctly. This is for a king sized bed. If you make a DIY herringbone headboard of your own, I’d love to see how it turns out!

I know people have asked this before, but I didn’t see an answer and am trying to construct–how long are the red boards on the diagram? Would you be able to measure one of the center ones? We love this so much! I don’t want to mess it up!

Hi Jennifer! The center boards are 29.5″ long, but they did shrink about 1/8-1/4″ after being inside (we placed them all flush together and you can see in the finished photos there are small spaces). I hope that helps! I’m working on getting my husband to write all these details out for me ;).

Can you tell me if all of the words were put together flush with each other Or was there a slight space between the boards? I can’t tell from the pictures if there is a space or if that is just darker stain.

this is so beautiful! i am planning on making it this weekend. I already have a bunch of 1x4s i just need to get the plywood. what is the final height? i see the final width on the plans but not the height

Hi Kate! I’m not sure how many 1x4s we used, but if you figure out the total length you’ll need you should be able to calculate it that way. One of these days I’ll get my husband to write out all the measurements to save others a few more steps!

Hi, I’m trying to save myself allot of time. I saw in a part the measurement of the longest board was 29 something. Do you have the measurements for all the cedar planks to make the herringbone? Also, what thickness and size is the plywood backing?